The word · Belief
الاِخْتِيَار
Ikhtiyar
Human choice: real enough to be answerable for, and never outside Allah's knowledge and creation.
Also written · Ikhtiyaar · Free will · Freewill · Human choice · Kasb · Acquisition · Jabr · Jabriyyah · Qadariyyah · Qadariyya · Determinism
The meaning
What Ikhtiyar means in Islam
Two old errors sit on either side of the road. The Jabriyyah said a person is compelled, like a feather in wind; the Qadariyyah said a person creates his own acts independently of Allah's decree. Ahl al-Sunnah hold both truths together: Allah creates the act, and the servant genuinely chooses and earns it, a position the Ash'aris call kasb.
Evidence · Scholars differ · The scholars read this one differently
Read beside it
Words that sit beside it
- QadrAllah's decree: that He knows, wrote, willed and created all that happens, without forcing anyone to sin.القَدَر
- QadaAllah's decree carried out: the partner word to qadr, though scholars differ over which term means which.القَضَاء
- Ash'ariA Sunni school of creed founded by Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari, defending orthodox belief with reasoned argument.الأَشْعَرِيَّة
- MaturidiA Sunni school of creed founded by Abu Mansur al-Maturidi, closely tied to the Hanafi tradition.المَاتُرِيدِيَّة
More from Belief
- Adhab al-QabrThe punishment or ease a person meets in the grave, before the Day of Judgement arrives.عَذَابُ القَبْر
- Ba'thThe resurrection: bodies raised and souls returned, so that everyone stands for judgement.البَعْث
- IstidrajBeing drawn in slowly by blessings while sinning, so that ease becomes a punishment rather than approval.الاِسْتِدْرَاج
- Lawh MahfuzThe Preserved Tablet, in which everything decreed was written down before it happened.اللَّوْحُ المَحْفُوظ
- QarinThe jinn companion assigned to each person, whose work is whispering toward wrong.القَرِين
- SunnahThe Prophet's way in belief, worship and conduct, and the measure against which innovation is judged.السُّنَّة